Solar Family Portrait

The image below is currently being passed around the web without attribution or explanation. Offering full-color views of Earth, the moon and Jupiter in the same shot, and it was taken by The Mars Global Surveyor. Be sure to click it to see it full-size.

Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy/Discover Magazine:

It’s images like this that remind us that we live on a planet, a world like any other and yet unique in that it’s our home. I get people asking me if space exploration is worth it, and then I see images like this, and I know the answer is yes. We need this perspective. It’s said that the Apollo 8 shot of the Earth rising over the Moon launched the modern environmental movement, because it showed all of us eggs sitting in our one, lone basket. We should be reminded of this idea as often as possible, and images like this one from the MOC need to be spread far and wide.